Turkish gov’t plans to cap prices of face masks at 1 lira each

The Turkish government will allow the sales of face masks with the maximum price of 1 Turkish Lira each, and the price will depend on the quality of the masks, daily Hürriyet reported on May 6.

As part of the normalization process, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced on May 4 that they plan to allow the sale of masks, whose sales were previously banned, adding that a standard price will be set.

Pharmacies or markets will be able sell them under the upper limit set, if they want to. However, sales above this price will not be allowed. Institutions will also strictly supervise pharmacies and markets after the start of the mask sales. Inspections will be carried out by Turkey Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency and the Commerce Ministry.

The government earlier banned the sales of the medical face masks aiming to distribute them to the citizens free of charge, but the plan has failed to work as many people were not able to receive SMS codes to receive the masks from pharmacies.

The government plans to issue a circular to regulate the sales of the medical masks, noting that the citizens will also be able to purchase them from the pharmacies and markets.

Commerce Ministry officials and the representatives of the medical industry had discussions on the issue, the daily reported.

When asked about the new arrangements, TOBB Medical Assembly Vice President Erkin Delikanlı said, “We expect the sales to start as of Wednesday. From the very beginning, we were saying that there would be no mask problems with the right organization. There was no production and supply problem yesterday, and today there is no problem. We explained this to the authorities. The right point has been reached in distribution and organization. This way, the citizens will be able to obtain the masks easily.”